Free Ferraris and Insults for Everyone or… I Went Drag in Woodburn Oregon

I’ve been fairly active since the last time I put words to the keys, with lots of time in the shop, a few races, a car show, and some new parts.  I’ve even watched TV (the new Top Gear).  Now if I was a smart man I’d end the blog here.  But I’m not, and I’ll let this paragraph stand as an introduction rather than a short and precise update.

I took the M3 out to the drag strip in Woodburn Oregon for their street-legal Friday night races.  The Woodburn dragstrip is a historic NHRA track operating since the 1950s.  Although an almost bone stock BMW is not what I consider a drag strip car, with Woodburn’s rich history I’ve wanted to try it for years and was happy to finally get out there.

That being said I was beaten by everything.  EVERYTHING.  Even the four door Ford (Taurus?) blew my doors off by a second.  I asked the guy what was in it.  He replied, “Ford Ecoboost with a few mods”.

And that’s the reality; everything has a turbo and 300+ horses now. And I like it.  Even when a Ford (Taurus?) sweeps past my M3.  It gives me hope that the future might actually be a little better.  Growing up in the 1980s the future of cars seemed bleak because they’d been on a steady performance decline since the muscle car era.

So what is it like racing an M3 at a drag strip?

Apparently I’m not smart enough to drag race an M3.  This is what happens when poor people buy cars above their social class, they’re just not smart enough to use the tool.

The BMW “Launch Control” feature takes the sort of multi-tasking coordination only the ruling elite possess from years of playing polo while riding an elephant in a pool while answering emails on their Blackberry to meet their executive level commitments.

Here’s the procedure:

Drive forward until the 1^st white light comes on the drag racing light thingy (also called a tree).  Drive very slowly until the second white light comes on the tree and stop immediately. Put your left foot on the brake.  Press the SMG shifter all the way forward from the “Drive” position and hold it there.  Depress the accelerator pedal, but not too quickly or you’ll engage “Burnout Mode”. Hopefully the tree hasn’t already went green.  When the tree turns on the second yellow light pull your left foot back and release your right hand on the shifter while keeping your right foot down (pat your stomach and rub your head at the same time while trying to run forward, for a similar experience).

My fastest times of the day were my first and last run,  and in both I decided to disregard “Launch Control” and merely put one foot on the gas and one on the brake until the light turned green.  I’ll probably need a new clutch soon but I didn’t smell any clutch heating up.

NHRA gives you a sticker if you hit 100 MPH in the quarter mile.  I hit 99 twice.  I’m actually glad because it gives me a goal to go back for.  I don’t want to put any money into the M3’s motor (M3 performance upgrades are too expensive – mufflers start at $500 for the crappy ones), so at least I can strive for the 100 m.p.h. sticker.  I’ll shed the rear seat & spare tire, jack the front tire pressure up, and bring some dry-ice to stick in my cold-air intake box (or go on a colder day).  I want that 100 mph sticker!

I'm The 99 MPH Car On Both

We actually won a race the next weekend.  No, it wasn’t drag racing, it was the Friday Night Time Speed Distance (TSD) rally.  And we were in the Beginner class.  And there was only one other Beginner car.  But whatever, we got a first place sticker!  Yeah baby.

Drag and TSD Stickers

And second place didn’t get anything.  And I mean that figuratively as well.  We gathered in a Pizza shop after the race to calculate times and b.s..  We asked the couple that took second to us how they did.  From there it was like watching a train wreck and knowing that you couldn’t do anything about it.  He made a comment like “Well if there is a next time I’m definitely navigating.”

She cheerily responded with, “Well great, I’d like to drive”.

He responded, “Yeah I don’t think that would help”.

And it went on.  She’d try and brighten the mood and he’d say something stupid.  I even tried to step in with a comment like “It was your first time, we all struggled our first time.”

He responded with something like, “Yeah, I doubt there’ll be a next time.”

At that point she let him know that she wanted to go home without sticking around for a drink or snacks.  Perhaps TSD rallying with your wife/girlfriend is not a good idea.

The next morning was the Sherwood car show.  I’ve devoted whole blogs to this show because it is the first big show of the season and (if the weather cooperates) lots of cars show up.

I saw my car culture pet peeve at the Sherwood show. 

A young guy, probably twenty-two or so, wearing trendy clothing that would look more at home on a yacht than a car show (tucked in collared shirt, pink shorts, tassled loafers, trendy sunglasses), talked the 50 year old wearing similar clothes into driving his Maclaren up and down the packed (with pedestrians) street while the younger yachter filmed it with his expensive camera mounted on a boom.  It put everyone on the road at risk for what?  So maybe grandpa could get on Youtube?  And let’s talk about grandpa.  He was beaming like a rich four year old showing everyone in kindergarten that his show and tell is better than theirs.  Total disregard for those of us walking in the street, wearing hot rod t-shirts and jeans, pushing our double stroller.

The car elitism trend is especially strong online.  There is a website, run by and authored by the flaming liberals associated with Gawker, called Jalopnik, where I occasionally read blogs because there is almost enough car material to cover up their annoying liberal circle-jerk mentality which they must weave into every article (today its “waaaa waaaa waaaa Brexit, and a little car stuff”).  One of their authors, Doug Demuro, drove his Ferrari to a box store and brought a TV home on his Ferrari’s roof.  He literally received death threats from people because he disrespected the car/badge.

What is wrong with you people?  Seriously, there are real problems in the world and you’re choosing to put a Ferrari in your Holy of Holies?

And I’m 100 percent certain you’d ask the Maclaren driver for a sweet moving shot for your Youtube channel.

I saw an article yesterday that asked who will be the next Henry Ford and make a people’s car?  I would.  And you know why I would be good at it?  Because I don’t care at all about the mystique of the price or badge.  I want sports cars to be fun.  That’s it.

I guess I’m the Bernie Sanders of car guys but I’d be more than happy if everyone could have a Ferrari in their garage.  Actually, I want something better. I wish upon you all a car that handles well, sounds great, provides great performance, is Toyota reliable, and induces smiles.  Everyone.  On Saturday mornings I’d like to go out to the imaginary open race track and dice with all my good buddies because they can also afford a great sports car.  And I’d be happy to try and provide that car to you all as a modern Henry Ford. I would love your daily, cheap, reliable commuter to also be incredibly fun.  I want to build a better car than Ferrari and sell it to you for pennies.  Elitism in car culture should be eradicated as its purely perception and performance is what should matter.

And on that subject, let’s talk about Top Gear.  If you’re my great grandson reading this in 70 years, here’s the (abbreviated) back story.  Three guys make a car show that’s very funny but many of their jokes make fun of others. They insult everyone alike, but minorities, insecure countries, and homosexuals take special offense.  The three car guys have fun in cars and bring us along with them.  One of the guys punches a member of the film crew for failing to secure dinner after a long day filming and they are all fired.  New politically correct cast is hired.  They aren’t funny.  And because they aren’t having fun, they don’t make me smile when they drive cars. Its just rich people driving expensive cars.  Yay (sarcasm).

Even my 1 year old was entertained by the fired hosts.  No joke.

Top Gear management forcing political correctness on us is another form of elitist corporations deciding they are smarter than us normal people.  Top Gear management are saying, “We don’t care if you enjoy old Top Gear (it was wildly successful) and joke in the same way, we are smarter than you, and we know that offensive jokes are the worst thing in the world, so we are taking old Top Gear away from you because you’re too dumb to realize the great travesty of slightly offensive jokes”.

No! Stop it!  Just grow some thick skin you pasty white, overweight, over-the-hill, middle-management, bad teethed British leaders!

See what I did there?  I offended you based on stereotypes of British businessmen; you probably took offense.  Yet there is a hilarious youtube video of an Island of Jeremy Clarckson's (this is the name of the most controversial of the three original hosts).  I would bet big money that Jeremy Clarkson got a good laugh and wasn't offended.  Try laughing, after all, why should you care what I say?

All people groups have traits that can be laughable if presented in a humorous way, and people like to laugh.  Stop telling me I’m a bad person because I think jokes about Mexico being terrible and the Miata being a gay hairdresser car are funny. 

Gasp, yes, I laugh at stereotypes despite, for the last 30 years, American educators trying to teach me stereotypes are terrible, horrific things.  You failed. My gut instinct beat down your attempts at programming me.

Well, I don’t know how to segway out of that. So I’ll just abruptly change the subject.  My Craigslist wanted ad for cheap wheels worked out. Someone contacted me and sold me a decent set of M3 wheels for $300 bucks today.  This means I can put wider wheels in the front of the M3 so at the next autocross my understeer doesn’t send corner workers running for their life, like the last time.

I was thinking about selling the four front wheels that I’ll be left with, but I realized I need wheels for the Lotus 7.  It’s a pipe dream because I’d have to find hubs and an axle that fit (for cheap), but I think the M3 wheels would look great on the Lotus, maybe painted either that classic Lotus Yellow or Gold.

The Lotus is coming along slowly.  I’m pretty close to finishing re-welding the existing frame.  From there I will need to add a few tubes that are missing and paint it.  Then I can start adding parts!  I’m probably three days of working on it from the adding parts stage.  I’d like to have the Lotus a rolling chassis by the end of the Summerall (Summer Fall) good weather in the Pacific Northwest.

I made a costly mistake.  I was grinding on the Lotus frame and the sparks landed on the M3’s windshield.  I now have a bunch of little pockmarks on the M3’s windshield.  A new windshield for a M3 runs about $1000 dollars.  I’m going to live with the pockmarks.

I’m not sure if the windshield is a cost of my hobby.  I think it’s a cost of my stupidity and carelessness.  After all, you can make pricey mistakes no matter what your hobby.  Some of the most mundane hobbies have the biggest risk. Consider the hobby of finding your own mushrooms in leisurely strolls through the woods.  Sounds peaceful right?  Until you pick the wrong one and die a horrific slow death.  A windshield isn’t sounding so bad now is it?

I was worried I wouldn’t have enough funds to maintain the M3 when I bought it.  It turns out my budget is no problem.  I just don’t maintain the M3.  Mechanically I do, but not all the little things. 

Windshield?

Nah.

Replace the busted washer fluid reservoir I destroyed understeering through an autocross corner cone in the near vicinity of terrified corner workers?

Nah.

Replace the cracked front plastic piece from same corner incident?

Motorcycle-style zip tie stitching worked great.

Replace the cracking side window rubber pieces that sell for ridiculous prices.

No way.

Repair the door dings and dented fender?

I’d rather buy performance parts.

Buy new door panels that aren’t peeling?

Just… Don’t… Care… Enough

Replace broken CD player?

Nope.  There’s still radio.

To be honest, I’m shocked the satellite navigation is still working.  But when it goes out I won’t try to fix it or replace it.  Google Maps, on my phone, auto-updates without buying new CDs from BMW.

So, in summary, I don’t like the new Top Gear, my car is slow, I’m un-fashionable, I’m careless, I laugh at stereotypes, liberal rhetoric annoys me, I hate status symbol seekers, I’m cheap and I don’t maintain my vehicles as expected.  It’s a good thing I’m married because this summary wouldn’t look good on a match maker website as my introduction.

MINI VISION NEXT 100 | The Shape of Things to Come.

The future is taking shape in the form of the MINI VISION NEXT 100. Discover a unique, personalised driving experience – the most intuitive yet. See more MINI NEXT 100: http://mini.com/next100

Mini 100-year vision: shared self-driving electric cars

Mini’s vision of the future has us being driven about in electric cars, autonomously. The body changes color to suit the preference of the current occupants. When not being used, the future Mini parks itself, and connects to a recharging network on its own.

This is the Mini Vision Next 100 concept, part of parent BMW’s 100th anniversary. The Mini, Rolls-Royce, and BMW divisions each prepared concept cars suggesting how each would produce and sell cars two to three decades from now. The Mini concept is less outrageous in physical form than the Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 concept, and doesn’t have to deal as much with the BMW brand’s angst over what will become of the Ultimate Driving Machine, long term, in an era that might be majority self-driving.

“Every Mini is my Mini” might be the tagline for the future Mini. It is a car meant to be shared among multiple riders. Think of an autonomously driven taxi, only cleaner, and one that isn’t painted yellow (US) or black (England). Instead, the future Mini adapts its features to the current occupants. That includes a “discrete silver skin” with chameleon features, and being able to change its color and graphics depending on who’s in the car right now. The interior is also changeable, Mini says: “The Mini of the future will be available 24/7, able to pick its driver up from their desired location in a fully automated way and will adapt itself to the driver’s individual tastes, interests and preferences.”

The interface between driver and car — Mini’s Siri, Mini’s Alexa — is the “Cooperizer.” (Maybe the URL was available?) It’s a circular, um, fixture atop the dash through which the driver adjusts the interior “ambience,” infotainment settings, and driving modes — driver in charge or car in charge — for “a perfectly personalized driving experience.” An “Inspire Me” feature of Cooperizer gets the car to suggest songs or good roads to drive, in case you’re out in the countryside, and not slogging through Houston traffic.

Mini says advances in packaging could make the future Mini even smaller than today’s car: “The efficiently-packaged, zero-emission drive system and the reduced need for crash zones in the future enable a compactness of body not so far removed from the first Mini back in 1959.” Unlike the Rolls-Royce concept that is meant to be self-driven, the Mini would always have steering, braking, and accelerator controls, though they could slide out of the way.

That first Mini was 124 inches long, a shade over 10 feet. Today’s Mini comes in multiple sizes, the smallest about two feet longer.

IBM unveils self-driving car powered by Watson and the cloud

IBM has revealed a 3D-printed driverless car that uses Watson cognitive computing technology to power its autonomous functions.

The Olli electric car was created by Local Motors and uses IBM's Watson Internet of Things (IoT) for Automotive software that has natural language comprehension to enable passengers to have conversations with the vehicle.

Olli can carry up to 12 people who can ask the car about attractions in the surrounding area, location recommendations based on personal preferences, and how the vehicle works.

Watson can also help the car learn by analysing data harvested by over 30 sensors in the cloud and sending it back to the car’s systems.

The vehicle is being tested in Washington DC, and soon in Miami-Dade County and Las Vegas, and the interactions with passengers set it apart from  driverless cars made by Audi and Mercedes.

It also stands out by being 3D printed, while other autonomous cars are built from more traditional materials or have driverless systems added to existing models.

Harriet Green, general manager of IBM’s Watson IoT, commerce and education division, explained that the company's partnership with Local Motors will explore how cognitive computing can be used in self-driving vehicles.

"Cognitive computing provides incredible opportunities to create unparalleled, customised experiences for customers, taking advantage of the massive amounts of streaming data from all devices connected to the IoT, including an automobile’s myriad sensors and systems," she said.

IBM is using Watson in an increasing number situations, ranging from unmanned coffee shops to complex local weather modelling with The Weather Company.

However, competition is heating up in the driverless car space as technology firms and car companies develop more automation and fully autonomous systems. Jaguar Land Rover is creating driverless systems that behave like human drivers.

Rolls-Royce unveils its first autonomous car

Rolls-Royce has unveiled its first driverless vehicle, a concept car that promises to help its owner announce their importance to the world.

The Vision Next 100 is an autonomous vehicle aimed at “the most discerning and powerful patrons in the world”. It has no steering wheel and a silk “throne” from which its occupants can watch the world go by.

Rolls-Royce said the zero-emission model, codenamed 103EX, showed the company “rejects the notion of anonymous, utilitarian and bland future modes of mobility”.

In a statement that was short on technical specifications but packed with florid description, Rolls-Royce promised an interior made only of “the most precious and contemporary elegance”.

The owner will be “encircled by the most modern handcrafted fine-line Macassar wood panelling” as they gaze at a “generous” high-definition television screen.

Their comfort will be ensured not by an ordinary car seat, but by a “beautifully textured, ivory-coloured luxurious throne upon which our passengers are conveyed, and from which they command”.

Their feet will be cushioned by “the finest one-off deep-pile ivory wool carpet”, while anyone worried about leg room will be satisfied thanks to extra space afforded by “the removal of the chauffeur”.

Instead of a driver, passengers can give orders to a virtual assistant named Eleanor – after the actor Eleanor Thornton, who is rumoured to have inspired the car’s Spirit of Ecstasy bonnet ornament.

Eleanor will act as a concierge “imbued with her own artificial intelligence” and capable of reminding the owner not to miss meetings and even bringing the car around to the front of their house at the start of a journey.

Rolls-Royce, owned by BMW, said the car proved that “certain truths are constant over time”, such as the notion that “the powerful have always understood the symbols through which they express their standing”.

“The very size of the Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 announces the importance of its precious cargo,” the carmaker explained, pointing to its vast dimensions – 5.9 metres long and 1.6 metres high.

The glass roof is a “canopy over the occupants that provides privacy while allowing them to contemplate the majesty of the stars in the firmament above as they glide through the night”.

The space usually reserved for the Rolls’ 12-cylinder engine will give way to a luggage compartment that opens automatically on arrival to present two personalised Grand Tourer cases.

And if the grandeur of the journey inside a vehicle that gives “the impression of a futuristic catamaran” was not enough, the car has something special in store on arrival at the passengers’ destination.

“As the Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 gracefully comes to a halt, something magnificent occurs,” the company said. The glass roof rises to allow the occupant to stand, while a step emerges from below the running board and a red light is projected, “carpet-like” to announce their arrival.

“Thus, as in Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’, our guest is framed and ready to step gracefully into the limelight and greet their audience … This is automotive haute couture,” the company added.

Amid the fanfare accompanying its unveiling, Rolls-Royce did not say how the vehicle, due to hit the streets in the 2040s, would be powered or how it would cope with speed bumps.

And despite the grand language, the concept car met with a mixed response, with technology website Slash Gear describing the vehicle as “sublimely crazy”.

A number of companies are working on driverless cars, including Google. Its two-seater looks like a cross between a Smart Car and a Nissan Micra, has no steering wheel, accelerator or brakes, and just two physical controls: “stop” and “go”.

Nissan, Toyota, Audi and the ride-hailing service Uber are among those also working on a self-driving technology. Volvo intends to test them on London roads next year.

The Vision Next 100 – the brainchild of Giles Taylor, Rolls-Royce’s director of design – was unveiled at the Roundhouse arts venue in north London on Thursday.

“It is an expression of our intrinsic understanding of the possibilities for a true luxury brand and the desires of its customers,” Taylor said.

Next generation of driverless cars will carry up to eight people

A new self-driving 'pod' capable of carrying eight passengers at one time around cities and airports will launch tomorrow.

The Pod Zero, which has a range of 60 miles, has been designed transform the way people move around cities by offering transport over the last couple of miles of a journey.

However, anyone in a hurry may need to brace themselves – the futuristic vehicles have a top speed of just 15mph.

The pods, which have been designed by Coventry-based engineering firm RDM Group, are intended to carry passengers over the 'first or last mile of a journey'.

Although they have a range of up to 60 miles, the pods are intended to be used in largely pedestrianized areas rather than on the roads.

They could, for example, be used to carry passengers around in airports, or to help visitors get from place to place in holiday resorts and theme parks.

RDM Group says the pods could also be used to carry students around large university campuses or to help people in shopping centres.

The pods will come in two, four and eight seat varieties and have been built to accommodate wheelchairs.

They are being seen as the 'next generation' of driverless vehicles from the company that has been testing LUTZ self-driving cars in Milton Keynes.

It will unveil the Pod Zero at the Automechanika event at the NEC in Birmingham on Tuesday.

David Keene, chief executive of RDM Group, said the interior of the vehicles hs been fited with video screens to keep passengers entertained during journeys.

He said: 'Pod Zero represents the next generation of pod and features different drivetrain, steering systems and a new striking interior that is dominated by video screens that can play adverts, information videos or just become neutral to showcase the view from outside.

China to see growth in autonomous car sales by 2035

Sales of autonomous vehicles worldwide are forecast to increase much faster than previously expected, thanks to a substantial increase in R&D investment through the automotive industry, according to market research firm IHS Automotive.

IHS Automotive, the automotive research arm of IHS Inc., issued a new forecast last week calling for some 76 million autonomous vehicles to be sold worldwide through 2035. The forecast calls for annual sales to grow from about 600,000 in 2025 to 21 million in 2035, a compound annual growth rate of 43% over the 10-year period.

Much of the early growth in sales is expected to occur in the U.S., where autonomous vehicles will be first deployed in 2020, and China, according to the Southfield, Michigan-based market research firm.

The forecast for 2035 sales is an increase of about 175% compared to the previous forecast from IHS. The firm has also raised substantially its projections for sales in earlier years, said Jeremy Carlson, principal analyst at IHS Automotive., in an email exchange with EE Times.

Carlson said IHS generally doesn’t compare its forecasts with previous iterations because they are constantly being updated, but in this case the increase is significant because based on recent developments the firm’s analysts “expect these technologies to find a home in more substantial ways around the world given all of the recent market activity.”

In a statement, Carlson said IHS expects entirely new vehicle segments to be created in addition to traditional vehicles adding autonomous capabilities. “Consumers gain new choices in personal mobility to complement mass transit, and these new choices will increasingly use battery electric and other efficient means of propulsion,” Carlson said.

The revised forecast is based on new developments such as the rise of ride sharing and car sharing programs, increased investment in autonomous car technology and regulatory activity, among other factors, IHS said. The forecast considers increasing investment in autonomy by automotive OEMs, suppliers and technology companies, as well growth in R&D centres and improved efficiencies, IHS said.

IHS projects that several thousand autonomous vehicles will be sold in the U.S. in 2020 as the nation works through challenges posed by regulation, liability and consumer acceptance. Sales of autonomous cars in the U.S. are projected to grow to 4.5 million vehicles by 2035, according to the IHS forecast.

The forecast calls for growth in China to be more rapid, despite a later start than in the U.S. By 2035, the firm projects that 5.7 million vehicles sold in China will be equipped with some level of autonomy, making China the largest market for autonomous vehicles.

Autonomous vehicle deployment will continue to be challenged by threats including software reliability and cybersecurity, though improvement has been shown in both areas, IHS said. The implementation of rules, regulations and laws around autonomous driving will also continue to prove challenging, according to the firm.

“Increasing competition from the high-tech and other industries is accelerating the auto industry’s autonomous software and cybersecurity development efforts,” said Egil Juliussen, director of research at IHS Automotive.

“Those who don’t adjust to a changing world will unfortunately be left behind, or will at least face a very different industry,” Carlson added.

76 million autonomous cars will be on roads by 2035: experts

Sales of autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles are expected to ramp up dramatically by by 2025 with a staggering 76 million self-driving vehicles roaming roadways internationally by 2035, according to a recent forecast by IHS Automotive.

“Increasing competition from the high-tech and other industries is accelerating the auto industry’s autonomous software and cybersecurity development efforts,” said Jeremy Carlson, principal analyst at IHS.

A synergy between several modern technologies will likely promote acceptance and usage of driverless and self-driving cars. For instance, your smart phone can play a key role in ensuring that you depart for and arrive at your destination on time by syncing your calendar, maps and real-time traffic data with the vehicle’s computer.

Once en route, your vehicle can provide a hotspot for your laptop or tablet device, ensuring connectivity–and an uneventful, automated drive to the office can allow you to prepare for the day and accomplish some work during your commute.

Not long ago, park-distance sensors and back-up cameras were privy to those who ponied up big money for luxury cars. Within a decade, these technologies have filtered down to even the most inexpensive cars available on the market.

In much the same way, autonomous drive technology is being unveiled on the most desirable and expensive premium cars, but in time, all vehicles for sale will offer at least some autonomous drive capability.

“Future mobility will connect and combine many different modes and technologies, and autonomous vehicles will play a central role,” adds Carlson while giving a glimpse at what our world could look like two decades from now.

In a stark warning, he elaborates, “Those who don’t adjust to a changing world will unfortunately be left behind, or will at least face a very different industry.”

Barriers to the proliferation of autonomous cars include consumer acceptance, insurance liability concerns, legal regulation from local to international courtrooms, and cyber-security. Researchers have factored these stumbling blocks into their calculations, and have still concluded that the future of our automobiles is largely autonomous.

Car enthusiasts, professional drivers and racers of all stripes are likely to find this news disconcerting–but regulators and manufacturers have been quick to dispel fears, promising that motorsports and 3-pedal back-road Sunday drives will still have their place.

Volkswagen to boost electric and autonomous cars

BERLIN -- Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Matthias Müller plans to unveil a sweeping restructuring Thursday, the broadest overhaul of the company in decades and part of the car maker's effort to get past its emissions crisis in part by moving aggressively into electric vehicles, self-driving cars and digital mobility services.

Mr. Müller aims to streamline a company that sells more than 10 million cars annually, operates more than 100 factories from China to Chattanooga, Tenn., and employs more than 600,000 people yet chronically lags behind the profitability of its main rivals, Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Co.

"We have to catch up with the best," Mr. Müller told a gathering of the company's top executives last month, according to excerpts from his comments seen by The Wall Street Journal.

The former Porsche chief took the reins of its parent company in September, after his predecessor and onetime mentor, Martin Winterkorn, resigned under pressure in the wake of the disclosure by U.S. authorities that Volkswagen had rigged diesel engines to cheat on emissions tests.

Mr. Müller's plan, dubbed "Strategy 2025," aims to fix some of the company's sluggish businesses, such as the namesake Volkswagen brand, which generates a tiny profit, and try to squeeze cost-savings from the broader group by capitalizing on the company's scale and product range.

Volkswagen has begun implementing some of the strategy goals that will be outlined in more detail in the plan, Mr. Müller has said, such as accelerating development of digital technology, self-driving cars and electric powertrains to confront the challenges posed by tech rivals such as ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, which is developing self-driving cars.

"Looking ahead, the car won't be our only core product for much longer. Our core product, our promise to people, is mobility," Mr. Müller said recently as he unveiled a $300 million investment in Israeli ride-hailing app GETT.

Under pressure from regulators to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, Volkswagen plans to boost its offering of battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to 20 models by 2020. The company now makes three battery electric cars and six hybrids. Volkswagen is targeting sales of 1 million electric vehicles a year by 2025.

Shortly after he took command, Mr. Müller hired an Apple Inc. executive, Johann Jungwirth, as the company's new Chief Digital Officer. Mr. Jungwirth is building a team that will have about 100 members tasked with redesigning the interior of the car to improve the passenger experience in an age of digital services and self-driving cars.

"We can learn a lot from Amazon," Mr. Jungwirth said.

Volkswagen plans to make GETT the nucleus of a new mobility-services unit, one of the first major strategic moves by Mr. Müller as CEO. The unit is expected to be based in Berlin, at arm's length from headquarters in Wolfsburg and close to the city's thriving tech scene.

The acquisition is a small financial step but a leap for Volkswagen, which until the diesel crisis tended to only pay lip service to electric vehicles and technology that is reshaping the auto industry.

"Before Diesel-gate we were already on the move, but there was an additional push after the new board was put in place," said Ole Harms, who will run the new mobility business.

Mr. Müller's new strategy overhauls the plan put in place by Mr. Winterkorn in 2007, which aimed to make Volkswagen the biggest and most profitable car company in the world by 2018. Volkswagen overtook Toyota as the biggest car maker by sales briefly last year and again in the first three months of this year.

In his quest for global dominance, Mr. Winterkorn invested heavily in new plants to achieve global scale but took his eye off profits, analysts said. In developing his new strategy, Mr. Müller has repeatedly emphasized that size alone doesn't matter.

"It just cannot be that an enterprise that sells 10 million vehicles a year is not able to leverage the scale and savings to the extent that it should be possible," he told executives last month.

One suggestion on the table is to combine the various component manufacturing activities of the 12 brands into a single business unit that serves the entire group. Many of the brands share components, including volume brands Volkswagen, Skoda and Seat, and premium brands Audi, Porsche and Bentley.

Analysts think Volkswagen could achieve considerable savings by combining the components business, but the proposal has also met opposition at Audi, according to people familiar with the situation.

Fiat to provide self-driving cars to Amazon and Uber?

Fiat Chrysler is making some more moves in the tech world, meeting with Amazon and Uber earlier this week to talk self-driving. The automaker wants to provide the two companies with test cars, in the hope that it leads to further partnerships down the road.

It comes a month after Fiat partnered with Google’s self-driving efforts, sending 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrids to Silicon Valley for testing.

Fiat would like to be the main supplier of Uber’s self-driving taxi fleet, which CEO Travis Kalanick is interested in establishing. The ridesharing app started testing customized Ford Fusion self-driving cars in Pittsburgh last month, and Fiat may supply Uber with additional cars.

According to Steve Jurvetson, a Tesla board member, Kalanick said that he is willing to purchase every single Tesla car once it has full automation capabilities. That’s a big deal, especially for automotive manufacturers that are struggling, like Fiat.

The Amazon talks are a bit different, Fiat is reportedly focused on deliveries. It wants to provide self-driving cars as a way for Amazon to complete the “last mile” of a delivery even quicker, and perhaps lower the cost of the delivery by removing the driver.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently spoke at the Code Conference about the lack of delivery options at peak times, stating that during holiday seasons Amazon needs much more than what’s currently available to manage all of the orders. Having a driverless fleet for purchase or rent could be a good way to get around the lack of availability.

From what we’ve seen, Amazon appears to be more interested in drones than self-driving cars as a means for last mile delivery. We may see multiple delivery services however, with drones used for small packages and self-driving cars for larger and more fragile items.

The Bloomberg report does say that the talks are preliminary, so we shouldn’t expect any announcements in the next few months.

Fiat will be into “hardware?”

Fiat is taking a different position to many automakers, which have started to test self-driving systems internally or purchase startups, in the case of General Motors, to build their portfolio.

While this may result in Fiat becoming nothing more than a hardware manufacturer, it may also stop the company from wasting billions trialling the technology and bringing it to market, instead becoming a supplier for future services that want autonomous vehicles.

That does bring up the question of what an automaker’s purpose is in the future. Will you purchase a car, lease it, or order it from apps like Uber and Lyft? All three are potential options and the lease and order option change the market dynamic for automakers tremendously.

Ontario - $65 million investment in autonomous cars

As automotive technology is, without a doubt, the topic of the week, it’s only fitting that the province would be pushed to invest heavily in the auto sector.

According to confidential documents obtained by the Toronto Star, the provincial government of Ontario is being urged to invest approximately $65 million into a driverless test centre likely to be located in Stratford.

The private sector would reportedly provide matching contributions of approximately $130 million over the course of five years. The report was obtained from the Ontario Centres of Excellence, who named Google, Magna, Blackberry’s QNX, IBM Canada and General Motors as potentially participating in the program.

Outside of Silicon Valley, Ontario has the highest cluster of information technology companies . The report goes on to say that the province is also home to nine major automakers, nine universities and 24 automotive research programs.

The proposal states that nearly half of the invested $65 million would go towards developing new automotive products.

The regions of Oshawa, Waterloo, Hamilton, London/Windsor and Ottawa would also receive $5 million each to encourage the development of autonomous vehicle technologies.

Autonomous vehicles have been on the minds of lawmakers and private companies in just the last four to six years. This past week however, with the news that GM Canada would hire up to 1000 engineers in Ontario to facilitate the development of new automotive technologies, discussion around driverless cars has exploded onto the nationals stage.

Last year, GM Canada formally committed to developing driverless cars in the form of building a fleet of autonomous vehicles for testing for as early as 2017. While connected and electric cars were included in GM’s announcement today, the news threw a significant amount of weight behind the company’s prior projection.

Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premiere Kathleen Wynne were present at this morning’s GM Canada announcement, and both politicians took it upon themselves to make a speak to the press.

What’s ensued is an enthusiastic debate across the province, and it can be argued, the country, about what this means for Ontario and for Canada’s traditionally lacking automotive sector. However, what appears to be an intriguing factor of both of today’s driverless announcements is government involvement.

Today has been riddled with news and anticipation surrounding the future of autonomous vehicle technology in Canada, both of which were deeply integrated in the media and in the marketing surrounding them, with government involvement.

Up until now, the conversation about driverless cars has been happening in two places; among the private sector and in regional municipalities. The presence of provincial and federal representation in today’s announcements, let alone the Prime Minister himself, brings these conversations to a much higher station of legislative interest.

While the public won’t be able to go out and by a driverless car tomorrow, it’s clear that the conversation is finally being had across all levels of government and of industry, which is what needs to take place in order for any meaningful developments to be implemented.

Investment opportunities in the autonomous car space

As companies race to bring autonomous vehicles (AVs) to market, investment activity in the space is heating up.

General Motors made headlines in March when it paid over $1 billion for Cruise Automation. A few weeks later leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz entered the space, announcing investments in two early-stage autonomous startups, Comma.ai and Dispatch.

Most recently, secretive AV startup Zoox raised a massive $250 million funding round, making it Silicon Valley’s newest unicorn. These and other recent deals point to a growing investment frenzy as AVs get closer to mainstream commercialization.

The AV investment landscape is complex. It includes both hardware and software players and features competitors ranging from early-stage startups to large publicly traded corporations. This article will provide a primer for those interested in the rapidly evolving AV space.
Hardware

Vehicles

The first and most obvious layer of the AV ecosystem is the vehicle itself. The capital investment and manufacturing expertise required to produce vehicles at scale largely preclude early-stage entrants from being active here. Even large, deep-pocketed technology companies investing heavily in an autonomous future — e.g. Google and Uber — seem unwilling and unlikely to become car manufacturers themselves.

The most probable outcome therefore seems to be that traditional car manufacturers will continue to mass-produce vehicles in the autonomous age. It is unclear whether this manufacturing role will continue to be as profitable for these companies as it has in the past. As value creation in transportation shifts toward high-tech components and software, manufacturers of the cars themselves may become an increasingly commoditized, low-margin business.

Virtually every traditional car manufacturer has by now begun to invest in autonomous vehicle capabilities. Those with particularly interesting autonomous programs include GM, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz. (While Tesla manufactures cars, it is more appropriately considered a technology company.)

Lidar sensors

Lidar is one of several types of specialized sensors that allow AVs to interpret their environment. Lidar sensors give the vehicle a precise three-dimensional awareness of its surroundings by projecting lasers in all directions and measuring the time they take to rebound, a process analogous to radar (the word Lidar is a portmanteau of “light” and “radar”).

Given how critical these components are for overall AV functionality, the market for Lidar sensors will be enormous. A handful of startups have recently emerged that specialize in their production.

Two key dimensions of these sensors are their size and their cost; the company that can harness Moore’s Law to drive both of these down the fastest will have a huge advantage. The Lidar sensors that Google used for its initial AV prototypes reportedly cost $80,000, an impracticable price point for the mass market.

The current market leader in Lidar production, Velodyne, priced its most recent sensor at $500. Velodyne, a privately held company based in California, has yet to take any venture funding.

Another California-based Lidar startup that has attracted positive attention recently is Quanergy. Quanergy has announced that its sensors will cost only $250 and have no moving parts. The company has established relationships with a handful of large OEMs but has yet to bring a product to market.

Cameras

Like Lidar sensors, cameras help AVs understand their environment and maneuver accordingly. Though less precise than Lidar, cameras offer the significant advantage of being able to detect color—important when, for instance, identifying traffic lights and signs.

The dominant player in AV camera production is a publicly traded Israeli company named Mobileye. Mobileye has high-profile supplier contracts with a number of auto manufacturers including Tesla.

Computer chips

Perhaps the most important piece of AV hardware is the computer chip that serves as the vehicle’s “brains.” These chips take inputs from the vehicle’s various sensors and, based on complex software algorithms (discussed further below), enable the vehicle to operate autonomously. As with microprocessors in personal computers, these components sit at the very center of the overall system’s functionality.

Given the enormous computing power demanded, AVs will require state-of-the-art microprocessors. The established chipmakers that have long dominated the microprocessor market — Nvidia, Qualcomm and Intel — seem poised to leverage their existing expertise to succeed with AV chips. All three companies have signaled that autonomous technology will be a strategic priority moving forward.

Of the three, Nvidia is arguably taking this opportunity seriously and investing most heavily in it. Investors have taken notice, with the company’s stock trading near an all-time high.
Software

While the hardware described above is essential, AVs are able to act intelligently, or autonomously, because of their software. There are several different key types of AV software to be aware of.

It is worth noting that the divide between hardware and software companies, while helpful as a framework, is not entirely clean. Some hardware companies — e.g. Mobileye — also provide software to analyze their sensor data. Likewise, some companies classified below as software players also offer hardware as part of an end-to-end autonomous solution.

Mapping and localization

The first category of software critical to AVs is mapping and localization.

In order to effectively navigate, an AV must have a detailed and up-to-date map of its surroundings and must know where on that map it is located. Creating and continually updating such a map database is a massively challenging exercise.

The two biggest players specializing in digital worldwide map database creation are HERE and TomTom. Each of these companies has attracted significant investment attention — no surprise, given that maps will be a key strategic asset for the AV industry.

A coalition of German automakers including Audi, BMW and Daimler recently acquired HERE for around $3 billion (outbidding Uber, among others).

TomTom, a publicly traded company based in Amsterdam, has faced acquisition rumors for years by suitors including Apple; to date the company remains independent. Apple, Uber and Bosch all have partnerships to use TomTom’s data.

Meanwhile, other AV players — notably Google and Uber — are seeking to build mapping capabilities themselves, while a handful of smaller startups are also tackling this challenge.

Cybersecurity

As vehicles become increasingly connected to the Internet, other vehicles and surrounding infrastructure, cybersecurity will become an increasingly prominent concern. In an important warning of the potential dangers of connected vehicles, white-hat hackers last year remotely took control of a Jeep Cherokee and cut its transmission.

Entrepreneurs and investors are becoming active in AV cybersecurity. As examples, Tel Aviv-based Argus Cyber Security raised $26 million in Series B funding last year, auto electronics maker Harman paid $72.5 million for cybersecurity startup TowerSec in March, and newcomer Karamba Security raised $2.5 million in seed funding in April. More competitors will no doubt emerge soon.

Fleet operations and management

As the autonomous age dawns, many predict that private car ownership will become obsolete, replaced by shared AV fleets that individuals summon only when needed. The task of managing these fleets and optimizing their routes will be an immense challenge requiring complex software solutions.

Startups already beginning to tackle this challenge include RideCell, which in early April raised $11.7 million from BMW and Khosla Ventures. Given its strategic positioning and its commitment to autonomous technology, it seems safe to assume that Uber will invest and compete vigorously here.

AV artificial intelligence / machine learning

The central technological breakthrough at the core of the entire AV concept is the vehicle’s ability to conduct advanced and adaptive decision-making itself based on all the data at its disposal. Artificial intelligence software enabling vehicles to “think” in this way is the most important and technically demanding AV technology category of all. A handful of companies are seeking to build such solutions.

Some of these companies focus solely on software; to go to market, they will look to partner with, or be acquired by, hardware manufacturers. One prominent example is nuTonomy, which recently announced a partnership with the Singapore government to deploy driverless taxis there by 2018. nuTonomy, an MIT spinout, raised $16 million in Series A funding in May.

Other companies are building machine-learning software integrated with hardware in order to offer a comprehensive autonomous system. Included in this group are auto manufacturers such as Tesla but also many promising startups. Cruise Automation, recently acquired by GM, is one well-known example.

Another noteworthy startup is George Hotz’s Comma.ai. Comma.ai is building aftermarket “kits” consisting of sensors, computers and software that allow customers to convert existing cars into AVs. The company aims to bring these kits to market for under $1,000 by the end of 2016.
Other startups tackling this ambitious challenge include Zoox, Peloton (focused specifically on long-haul trucking fleets) and Nauto, among many others currently in “stealth mode.”
Conclusion

The landscape of AV companies in these early days of the technology is fluid and fast-changing. Established auto manufacturers, large technology companies and scrappy start-ups are all fiercely competing to win in the AV ecosystem.

A wave of M&A activity, partnerships and consolidation seems likely as AVs move toward commercial availability. One thing is certain: There will be massive opportunity for profit as the autonomous vehicle market takes off in the coming years.

In the words of angel investor Tikhon Bernstam, one of Cruise’s earliest backers: “You’d be hard-pressed to lose money investing in this space right now because there is going to be tens or even hundreds of billions in M&A and IPOs going forward. Cruise at $1 billion may look very cheap one day.”

Why Apple Inc. (AAPL) Wants To Enter The Autonomous Vehicle Industry?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is currently one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. It gained its success by innovating and creating devices that are way ahead of their time or their competition. It has been manufacturing numerous electronic devices over the years but has never set foot inside the ever-expanding autonomous electric car industry. Numerous sites now speculate that the tech giant is secretly in the process of building its self-driving electric car. Here is The Country Caller’s take on why Apple wants to enter the autonomous vehicle industry.

One of the greatest aspects about Apple is its ability to time everything right. Its strategic timing has been critical to get it where it stands today. It is now an open secret that Apple is working on its own self-driving autonomous car, which indicates its prediction that it might be the perfect time to enter the autonomous vehicle industry. With Tesla leading the way with its innovation in the autonomous industry, Apple is out to prove a worthy competition. The autonomous industry has significant potential and Apple would definitely not want to miss the opportunity on offer.

Autonomous vehicles were proposed many decades ago but it’s only in the last few years that electric cars have become a reality, mostly due to the sheer resilience of Tesla. Self-driving cars are seen as the future of the automobile industry. Apple has one of the best research and development teams in the world, with a significant budget. For a tech giant, it has all the necessary tools and resources at its disposal.

All technology ‘heavyweights’ are rumored to be working on their cars. Tesla might have started the most competitively advanced industry ever through releasing its electric cars. The phenomenon has already begun and we only hope that the rumors are true regarding Apple’s desire to join the party.

NRMA calls for autonomous car trials in Australia

Australia is behind on the rise of the autonomous car, but a new push by the National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA) may force the government into action.

NRMA’s new chief executive, Rohan Lund, called for the government to allow autonomous car trials, let the private sector implement peer-to-peer networks for traffic, and add smart sensors to the roads.

“To solve the infrastructure and mobility challenges of the future, governments need to move beyond a business as usual approach,” said Lund to the AFR. “Simply building new infrastructure and throwing money at ad hoc projects will not of themselves solve congestion, improve travel times or future proof our infrastructure and transport services.”

Some of these technologies are already being implemented in smart cities as a way to lower congestion and improve parking. Autonomous cars will supposedly fix both of these issues as well, but it’s unlikely Australia will be the first country to try out the cars.

NRMA wants Australia to make them highway-legal now

In the interim, NRMA wants the Australian government to legalize semi-autonomous driving on highways. Tesla’s already provides this system with its AutoPilot, but that is currently unavailable outside of the U.S., because it is considered “illegal” by most governments. And given the Aussie left-hand drive rules, they may have a point.

NRMA is not all talk, it plans to launch its own car sharing app to compete with Uber, GoGet, and Flexicar. The app will use vehicles from the Thrifty business, owned by NRMA, which has 27,000 cars.

“In a world where not everyone wants to own a car, or a second car for that matter, we can offer cars as a service at scale,” Lund said. “That may take the form of supplying a fleet for car hire, car sharing or even to Uber drivers.”

All of the innovative ideas may fall on deaf ears at the moment, in the middle of a federal election. It may also give Labor some talking points about how to revive the economy, though the party doesn’t seem too interested in private businesses controlling transport.

US government may legalize autonomous cars by July

The current state of autonomous vehicles in the U.S. is fragmented. Some states allow testing and semi-autonomous driving, others are staunchly against Google, Uber, and even leading automakers like General Motors testing self-driving vehicles in their state.

That may change in July, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) publishes federal guidelines for autonomous vehicles, which will supposedly be more lenient on testing and possibly legalize self-driving systems for public use.

“What is unusual is everybody expects regulation comes out and that’s what it is forever, and NHTSA’s job is react and enforce it,” said senior administrator Mark Rosekind during a panel at the TU-Automotive auto-tech conference in Novi. “That will not work with this area. I think we’re going to have something different in July.”

The Department of Transportation will focus on four main areas in the announcement, according to Rosekind. Those include deployment, state policies, less vague process terminology, and new tools.

Autonomous Car Sales Will Hit 21 Million by 2035

United States will be an early leader in deploying autonomous vehicle technology, an effort that will eventually help put nearly 21 million self-driving cars on the world’s roads by 2035, IHS Automotive predicts in a report released Tuesday.

The forecast, which is much higher than previous estimates, is influenced by recent research and development by major automakers, suppliers, and tech companies as well as regulatory changes and a wave of investments, according to IHS Automotive, a division of IHS Inc.

The research firm even sees the 2020 Summer Olympics as a driving factor towards wide deployment of autonomous vehicles. The research firm says while the U.S. leads the world in initial deployment, Japan will be responsible for ramping up industry coordination and investment ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. Deployment in the U.S. will begin with several thousand autonomous vehicles in 2020, which will grow to nearly 4.5 million vehicles by 2035, according to IHS Automotive forecasts.

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“Global sales of autonomous vehicles will reach nearly 600,000 units in 2025,” Egil Juliussen, director of research at IHS Automotive, said in a statement. The new forecast reflects a 43% compound annual growth rate between 2025 and 2035, he said.

The IHS analysis took into account the increasing investment by automakers and other companies into autonomy, car-sharing and ride-sharing programs, and research and development centers.

While 21 million self-driving cars sounds like a lot, consider that global sales of traditional vehicle sales hit 82.9 million last year. Toyota, on its own, sold more than 10 million vehicles last year.

Automakers and tech companies are in a race to develop self-driving cars and the services—like ride-sharing—that could expand exponentially with the technology.

In the past six months, a number of automakers have announced investments and strategic partnerships with ride-sharing companies like Lyft, Uber, and China rival Didi Chuxing.

In May, Toyota and Uber announced they had entered into a “memorandum of understanding to explore collaboration, starting with trials, in the world of ridesharing in countries where ride-sharing is expanding,” Toyota Financial Services Corporation, a subsidiary of Toyota, and Mirai Creation Investment Limited Partnership, is also investing an undisclosed amount in Uber, the companies said.

The news followed Volkswagen’s announcement that it had invested $300 million in Israeli startup Gett, a service that ferries passengers in taxis and black cars in 60 cities worldwide. Earlier this year, GM invested $500 million in Lyft and announced a partnership aimed at eventually deploying fleets of self-driving taxis.

Uber talks autonomous car partnership with Fiat

Uber Technologies Inc. has held talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV about a potential partnership involving self-driving car technology, people familiar with the matter said.

The discussions are at a preliminary stage and may not result in a partnership, the people cautioned. Fiat Chrysler is one of several auto makers with whom Uber has held such talks in recent weeks, one of the people said.

The growing role of technology in transportation is fueling a frenzy of global alliances between the world's largest auto makers and the biggest tech companies.

Uber is seeking new partners after some of its largest rivals forged their own alliances, including Apple Inc.'s $1 billion investment in Chinese ride-hailing startup Didi Chuxing last month and General Motors Co.'s $500 million backing of Lyft Inc. earlier this year.

Fiat Chrysler, viewed as a laggard in rapidly advancing driverless technology, is in talks with several tech companies to bolster those efforts. The car maker has also held early discussions with Amazon.com Inc. about using Fiat's cars for self-driving deliveries of packages, one of the people said.

Bloomberg earlier reported on Fiat's discussions with Uber and Amazon.

Last month, Fiat Chrysler said it was working with Alphabet Inc.'s Google to redesign the 2017 Pacifica Hybrid minivan to integrate Alphabet's computers, sensors and software. The minivans, like Alphabet's other self-driving cars, will be solely for testing.

Fiat Chrysler Chief Sergio Marchionne said last month that he was willing to work with Silicon Valley's high-tech companies to develop new car technologies. The approach is different from those of several competitors that have shunned tech giants to remain in control of what goes into their vehicles.

A partnership with Uber could further bolster the image of the third-largest U.S.-based auto maker. General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. have both spent hundreds of millions investing in ride-sharing and other mobility strategies.

Uber began work on its own autonomous driving technology last year when it poached several top robotics researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and opened its Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. It is has begun testing self-driving cars in that city and plans to incorporate autonomous vehicles into its fleet by 2020.

Last month, Uber said it partnered with Toyota Motor Corp. to help make more cars available to its drivers through a new leasing program operated by Toyota's lending unit. Uber and Toyota have no plans to work together on self-driving car technology, a person familiar with the partnership said.

On Wednesday, Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick appeared on stage alongside Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler AG, at a business conference in Berlin. Among other topics, the pair discussed how self-driving car technology could help improve road safety.

Insurer launches UK first driverless car policy

The company Adrian Flux has launched what it claims to be the UK’s first personal driverless car insurance policy.

The policy is designed for consumers who already have driverless features in their cars, such as self-parking, or are thinking of buying a car with autopilot features. Fully self-driving cars are not expected to be on the road until 2020 at the earliest, when Volvo has said it plans to launch such vehicles.

Gerry Bucke, the general manager of Adrian Flux, said: “We understand this driverless policy to be the first of its kind in the UK – and possibly the world … More than half of new cars sold last year featured autonomous safety technology, such as self-parking or ABS [anti-lock braking systems], which effectively either take control or take decisions on behalf of the driver. And it’s only going to continue. Driverless technology will become increasingly common in our cars over the next few years.”

Tesla Autopilot software, released late last year, and Nissan Motor’s Infiniti Q50 technology allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel in certain circumstances.

Adrian Flux said said its policy would be updated as both the liability debate and driverless technology evolved. It is estimated that human error is at least partly responsible for more than 90% of current road fatalities.

As a result, a move to self-driving cars is expected to reduce car insurance premiums in the long term. Norfolk-based Adrian Flux, which has 600,000 customers, said that with the potential reduction in accidents, the new policy could be cheaper than standard ones, although other factors, such as location and overnight parking, remained important.

Bucke said: “We already provide discounts for cars fitted with assistive technology, such as autonomous braking, as it has been proved to reduce accidents, and therefore claims.”

The driverless policy has additional features to a standardone. Customers will be covered for loss or damage in case of: failure to install vehicle software updates and security patches, subject to an increased policy excess; satellite failure or outages affecting navigation systems, or failure of the manufacturer’s vehicle operating system or other authorised software; loss or damage caused by a failure to manually override the system to prevent an accident should the system fail; and loss or damage if the car gets hacked.

The modern transport bill announced in last month’s Queen’s speech will extend compulsory cover to accidents where the car, rather than the driver, is at fault. The Association of British Industry welcomed the move and is working with the government on insurance and liability issues, to determine when manufacturers rather than drivers are responsible.

Another major issue is the self-driving car’s vulnerability to hacking. The Jeep manufacturer, Chrysler, was forced to recall cars after researchers showed they could take control of the car via simple text messages.

Testing of driverless cars in the UK has already begun, with the government funding a number of projects. The first trial of self-driving cars in public pedestrianised areas is with the Lutz Pathfinder in Milton Keynes. It involves electric two-seater pods made by the Coventry-based engineering firm RDM and equipped with autonomous control systems developed by the University of Oxford’s mobile robotics group. Volvo has announced it will start testing self-driving cars on public roads in London next year.

A recent survey of nearly 1,800 customers by Adrian Flux revealed very few would consider buying one.

Of those who answered “not likely” to owning a self-driving vehicle, just over 45% said they didn’t like the idea of giving up control to a computer, while 36% said they enjoyed driving too much to hand over the wheel.

BMW "i" Division To Focus On Autonomous Cars

The “i” sub-brand was founded by BMW in 2011 to design and manufacture lightweight electric vehicles, but new reports suggest the subsidiary has made a major strategic shift, turning its attention on self-driving tech as well.

According to Reuters, board member Klaus Froehlichsaid said that the German car manufacturer has used its “i” division as a development center for self-driving cars: "It is now in ramp-up stage. We call it Project i Next."

The company has changed track after its only all-electric car available, the i3, has failed to gain traction with the public, with only 25,000 sales last year. So, instead of challenging the likes of Tesla or Porsche with a similar concept (a zero-emissions sports limo, for example), BMW decided to shift its main focus on developing an electric vehicle equipped with autonomous technology for the near future.

As part of this mobilization, BMW is hiring experts in machine learning and artificial intelligence to integrate various functions, such as cruise control, emergency braking, lane-keeping assist and so on.

Don’t expect the model to appear sooner than 2020-2021 though, as BMW just laid the foundations of Project i Next with the recently previewed Vision Next 100 concept. Until then, it will update its only fully electric-powered car, the i3, by 2018, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Mapbox enters the autonomous car market

A year ago, Mapbox, the open-source based map provider that competes against the likes of Google and Here for B2B deals for customized and in-app maps, raised one of the biggest rounds ever for a mapping startup. And as it continues to grow out its existing business (which serves customers like Foursquare, Mapquest, Pinterest, Instacart and others), Mapbox is also taking its ambitions into a higher gear. Today the startup is unveiling Mapbox Drive, a new version of its mapping data designed for use in cars equipped with autonomous navigation capabilities.

Mapbox’s CEO and founder, Eric Gundersen, tells me that the company is very close already on a deal with a car company to use Mapbox Drive in its vehicles, and says that the opportunity more generally is a big one. That is underscored not just by the acquisition of Here by a car consortium, but the investments made by companies like Toyota, VW and GM not just to build their own autonomous car fleets, but also to partner up with some of the most likely users of those vehicles: on-demand transportation companies.

“All car companies now want to take a software-first approach,” he says, as they invest more into what the future car will look like. “They have been trying to build up external expertise.”

Recent research from Chetan Sharma indicated that in the first quarter of 2016, 69% of new cellular accounts came not from smartphones but from cars, tablets and IoT devices.

That’s a sign of how things are shifting, but it also signals the importance of people actually getting good and useful content, lest they assume the services are not worth having otherwise. In cars, that will come down to things like maps.

Mapbox Drive will include navigation data that incorporates real-world driving conditions; an ADAS map with centerlines and topology for autonomous vehicles (level 3 and level 4); and real-time traffic conditions. As with the original Mapbox SDK, the idea here is that the startup is using raw data from Open Street Map, and is then making it more unique and useful by ingesting and updating data, at the same time that it is providing it to customers.

That is to say, the company is using sensors on cars (and phones and whatever else is using Mapbox apps) to pick up more location information, when then gets anonymised and used to keep its maps as accurate as possible.

This is already a large operation for the company. Gunderson tells me that last week the company covered 100 million miles of telemetry data for its maps, and has been collecting data (just location, not identification, data) for the last 18 months.

And notably, Mapbox’s approach is potentially disruptive to older, incumbent mapping providers who have not traditionally picked up location data from sensors, but from the costly process of using vehicles that comb roads and record them, alongside purchasing satellite imagery.

A testing time for Honda autonomous cars

At a dedicated testing ground in California, Honda is demonstrating how close it is to arriving at its first self-driving car milestone -- a practical automated highway driving system.

With input from research centers across Europe and Japan as well as in the U.S., Honda's aim is to hit that target by 2020.

"Automated vehicles have the potential to significantly improve safety and expand access to mobility," said Jim Keller, senior manager and chief engineer, Honda R&D Americas.

 To this extent, spaces like the GoMentum Station in Contra Costa county, California are vital. It has 20 miles of roadway and infrastructure within a 5,000-acre site for realistic testing.

Likewise, in Michigan the 32-acre Mcity site has been up and running for almost a year, enabling car companies to undertake ‘real world' inner-city testing.

"We believe that safe and secure sites like GoMentum provide a unique opportunity to accelerate technology development and the advent of a cooperative car society," said Keller.

Honda's showcase also highlights the road blocks that are still in the way for all carmakers. Existing technologies are capable of driving a vehicle without human input, but until they have been tested over the equivalent of 1 million miles, there is no clear idea of how reliable they truly are. The angle of the sun could be enough to confuse a sensor, for example.

But before any car can drive itself, it will need to be able to communicate with other vehicles and infrastructure -- V2X technology.

"V2X is a key requirement," said ABI Research Vice President Dominique Bonte. "With it, vehicles can be proactive and capture and share critical events happening locally with each other, ultimately ensuring safer driving practices."

At the Honda demo, communication was via the 5.9Ghz radio spectrum for Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC), and there's a risk the spectrum is under threat.

"DSRC-enabled vehicles can make the nation's roads safer for all users," said Edward Cohen, vice president, Government and Industry Affairs, Honda North America. "To accomplish the goal of enhancing road user safety, we need the support of policymakers to preserve 5.9 GHz radio spectrum."